Kaçkar by UTMB second edition: 60 countries at the start line, performance left blank

Ayder, a plateau in the Kaçkar range in Rize province, in Turkey's Eastern Black Sea region, opened race day with the ritual familiar to state-backed sports events: Turkey's Minister of Youth and Sports, Osman Aşkın Bak, fired the starting signal. Behind him stood 2,000 runners from 60 countries. Ahead lay mountain trails the minister himself described as “difficult, with significant gradients.” Between those two points — start and finish — sits a blank that anyone who follows athletics performance notices immediately: not a single time mark in the report.

I read the Anadolu Ajansı report twice, then a third time, to be sure I hadn't missed anything. No winner's name. No finish times. No split breakdown. No course record. No elite start list. Only scale: 2,000 people, 60 countries, Ayder cuisine, and a promise of “beautiful images to be broadcast from here.”

That is not wrong. It just tells you this is a sports story written in the language of tourism, not the language of performance. And to read it correctly, you have to separate two entirely different kinds of value: the value of a destination event and the value of a competitive race.

Context: where Kaçkar by UTMB sits in the ecosystem

Kaçkar by UTMB is not part of the World Athletics competition system. It sits inside the UTMB World Series — the commercial trail circuit run by UTMB Group, the organizer of UTMB Mont-Blanc in Chamonix, France. Entry to this system is not by time standard but by lottery weighted with Running Stones: points accrued at qualifying races, used as lottery weights for a place in the Chamonix final. The “standard,” in other words, is an entry standard, not a performance standard.

This season is Kaçkar's second. The opening ceremony featured Race Director Johan Essl — a signal that this is a direct franchised node of the central UTMB brand, not a self-initiated local race. In the report, Minister Bak calls Kaçkar by UTMB “part of the largest organization in the world” — an accurate description on the brand axis, though worth noting that “largest” here refers to scale and reach, not performance.

The sponsor list is also telling: Turkish Airlines, TOGG, Turkcell, Maxis — all national champion brands. On the state side: the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Türkiye Tourism Promotion and Development Agency, the Rize Governorship, and DOKA (the Eastern Black Sea Development Agency). That overlap between national brands and public agencies shows this is not a federation race but a project co-governed as a tourism vehicle.

Analysis: what is actually being built at Kaçkar

Minister Bak's positioning is the key. He said he wants Ayder and Rize associated with organizations like this, the way Davos is associated with the economic forum. That is the language of a destination planner, not a performance official. The goal is not to produce a Turkish trail champion but to put a geographic region on the international trail-running map.

Along the industry's transmission path, value at Kaçkar flows like this: public resources (ministry, DOKA, province) plus the UTMB brand license, through the organizer and sponsors, down to tourism, image promotion, and the local economy. The minister states it plainly: “Sports tourism provides significant earnings to the country.” That sentence accurately describes the money flow.

In this model, the main stage is not the course but the frame. In the report, he emphasizes that all trails are fitted with cameras for taking and sharing photos. Call it what it is: a safety and promotional feature, not a rule matter. The event's value to organizers lies in the images broadcast, and that is precisely why weather is the most direct threat.

Historical data matters here. The Rize Governor recalled that in the first edition, Kaçkar was “hidden by fog and rain.” For an event whose communications value depends on scenery, the Black Sea mountain climate's ability to wipe out the frame within hours is a high-level risk, not a minor detail. Mountain trail races typically carry alternate course plans, cut-offs and insurance; the report neither confirms nor denies them.

Contrarian angle: “world-class athletes” is an unverified claim

Minister Bak said ultra marathon runners are “world-class athletes with followers worldwide.” That is a rhetorical characterization, not evidence of this specific event's competitive depth. Among the 2,000 starters, the report names not one elite contender. The two individuals named as running 20 km are representatives of the organizing agency and the news agency — participation facts, not performance indicators.

Public opinion dislikes the contrary view, but history feeds it with time. In trail running, no world record is officially ratified, so competitive quality can only be measured by two things: course records and elite-field depth. The report provides neither. Therefore any claim about Kaçkar's sporting standard is speculation, not conclusion. This needs stating clearly to avoid confusing “many people running” with “good people running.”

There is also financial risk. Resources come from public budgets (ministry, province, DOKA). The event's survival depends on multi-year allocations, not only sponsor contracts. This model can hold up well if placed within a national events roadmap — and the report shows a link: Turkey is preparing for the 2027 European Games in Istanbul, and Kaçkar may be a test of organizing capacity.

What to watch

Three signals will determine the real value of Kaçkar by UTMB, and all three lie outside the opening report: the elite start list and results; the full distance menu plus course records (20 km is confirmed, but standard trail distances are usually much longer); and the ability to renew with the national sponsor group for a third season. When that data appears, the debate over Kaçkar truly begins.

Every overthrow in how we read an event starts with a question that should have stayed silent: are 60 countries and 2,000 people an achievement of the organizer or of the sport? In trail running, the answer sits at the finish line, not the start line.